Conveyor type ovens have been used for many years in commercial enterprises for heating and/or cooking food items. Conveyor type ovens include a conveyor for transporting food products through the oven. The oven often has one or more heating elements spaced about the conveyor for heating the oven cavity and the food product passed therethrough. These prior art ovens rely on high velocity hot air, infrared, radiant, or convection type heating elements to treat the food products passing through the oven.
A drawback with the prior art conveyor type ovens is the wasted energy produced in reheating, toasting, or cooking of the food product. Often the prior art conveyor type ovens utilize a round bar type emitter that emits infrared waves in at least a 180 degree arc thereby heating the entire oven cavity and limiting the emissions directed toward the conveyor and the carried food product. Another drawback of the prior art conveyor type ovens is that the heating elements of the oven are controlled to maintain a constant air temperature within the oven cavity. Therefore, when a cold or frozen food is introduced into the oven on the conveyor the heating elements are charged to maintain a set air temperature in the oven cavity. This adjustment in the temperature of all of the heating elements wastes energy and increases the cost of operation of the oven and often results in an unacceptable food product.
It is thus a desire of the present invention to provide a conveyor type oven that provides desired heating, cooking, or toasting of a food product in an expedited manner while limiting energy consumption. It is a further desire to provide a conveyor type oven that includes a first heating section located on a first side of the conveyor that focuses energy substantially toward the conveyor, and a second heating section located on a second side of the conveyor that directs energy substantially toward the conveyor. It is a further desire for the second heating section to be divided into two separate zones wherein each zone includes at least one heating element that is controlled to maintain a set surface temperature separate from the other heating zones. It is a still further desire to provide a conveyor type oven that includes a plurality of heating zones wherein each heating zone includes independent heating elements that are operated to maintain a substantially constant temperature within the heating zone.